This invention relates in general to content distribution and, more specifically, to routing delivery of content from a network.
There is a desire to transfer large content objects with high quality at a constant minimum rate to provide adequate QOS. A live video broadcast is a good example of a large content object that is transferred at a constant minimum rate. Unfortunately, the Internet is a poor network for these types of broadcasts because of the data quality loss at each of several potential hops, because of the limited bandwidth of most transmissions, and because the Internet was not designed to stream data for long time periods at a constant data rate.
As mentioned above, transfer of large objects at constant data rates without loosing information is problematic. To address these concerns, streaming media is completely downloaded to a local hard drive for playback at a later time. Playback from the local hard drive avoids the drawbacks associated with the distribution of streaming content from the Internet. There is a desire, however, to play streams of content received from the Internet as it is downloaded.
The invention relates to routing delivery of content from a network. In one embodiment, a method for client-side routing of a content object between a plurality of datapaths to a server is disclosed. A first datapath with the server is associated with a first party. A second datapath with the server is associated with a second party. The client computer is used to automatically determine which of the first and second datapaths to receive the content object from.
Reference to the remaining portions of the specification, including the drawings and claims, will realize other features and advantages of the present invention. Further features and advantages of the present invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention, are described in detail below with respect to the accompanying drawings.